Debugging Edge AI on Zephyr and Lessons Learned

misoji engineer

December 09, 2025

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1. Debugging Edge AI on Zephyr and Lessons Learned Lightning Talk:

2. About Me Handle name：　misoji　 @misoji_engineer Occupation: Hardware Engineer. I am

   a Hardware and Hobbyist Engineer This presentation is about My Hobby. (Not work-related!)

3. Agenda • The State of Edge AI on Zephyr •

   A Beginner-Friendly Approach • Hardware That Worked for Me　＆　Short Demo • Summary An Beginner Introduction to Edge AI on Zephyr Lightning Talk: (About 10～15 minutes)

4. The State of Edge AI on Zephyr

5. Zephyr already provides support ▪It’s easy to deploy and run

   Edge AI models directly on Zephyr. Major Edge AI frameworks already support for Zephyr. https://edgeimpulse.com/ https://www.zephyrproject.org/ Just Build it all together. https://github.com/tensorflow/tflite-micro Zephyr Project We can build together. Edge AI Models

6. Many official support There's a lot of support, including Samples,

   SDKs, Boards. ・Zephyr Sample (Hello World) ・Edge Impulse SDK Zephyr Almost Boards Work https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr/tree/main/samples/modules/tflite-micro https://github.com/edgeimpulse/edge-impulse-sdk-zephyr ・Edge Impulse Complete Samples with sensors Example https://github.com/edgeimpulse/firmware-nordic-thingy91 Almost Boards Work Many official Board support Temp, Humidity, Accel… sensors implemented https://www.nordicsemi.jp/tools/thingy91/

7. For Beginner (and Me)... To make it easier to Debug

   Edge AI on Zephyr... But I don't have official support board… How I Got Started? Beginner (Me) Useful & Low-Cost Boards Temp, Humidity, Accel… sensors implemented Accel Sensor ≒$3 Pico2(W)≒$10 ≒$100~$150 ? OR XIAO nRF54L15 Sense　≒$15 Integrated with ・Accel sensor ・Micropone +

8. A Beginner-Friendly Approach

9. Edge Impulse ▪Overview: ・Easily create AI models (machine learning models)

   from sensor data. ・Create lightweight models → Integrate them into Zephyr. A development platform for lightweight AI models. https://www.zephyrproject.org/ https://edgeimpulse.com/

10. What kind of models can you build? ▪Today, I will

    introduce "Motion" and "Audio" example with useful Board. Lightweight AI models for Motion, Images, and Audio… https://edgeimpulse.com/

11. Uploading Demo for Edge Impulse https://youtu.be/5CdPXB99Jo0

12. Integrating a Lightweight AI Model into Zephyr ▪My Test Overview

    ・Audio : Loop of [Save 1 second of Mic data] → [Run inference] ・Motion: Loop of [Save 2 seconds of Accel data] → [Run inference] The program and instructions are available on GitHub. Model from Edge Impulse: Just Copy & Build Zephyr Project

13. ・Build result example (Motion Recognition) + Good Thing for Zephyr

    Zephyr & Edge AI fit in small RAM and ROM. ▪Including the AI model, fits into kBytes of RAM and ROM.　 Match Low-end SoCs/CPUs ROM:177kB, RAM:27kB

14. Hardware That Worked for Me & Short Demo

15. These were made for hobby, so please use just as

    a reference. ・pico2-ei-zephyr-demo Raspberry Pi Pico 2(W) & Sensor Board https://github.com/iotengineer22/pico2-ei-zephyr-demo My Test Example ▪GitHub ・zephyr-ei-xiao-nrf-demo XIAO nRF54L15 Sense https://github.com/iotengineer22/zep hyr-ei-xiao-nrf-demo XIAO nRF54L15 Sense　≒$15 Integrated with ・Accel sensor ・Microphone We can use Useful & Low-Cost Boards + Sensor≒$3 Pico2(W)≒$10

16. Motion Demo (XIAO nRF54L15 Sense) https://youtu.be/FqW0INMxQlg

17. Motion Demo (Raspberry Pi Pico 2(W)) https://youtu.be/kFZd0z9Mo5U

18. Motion Recognition Live Demo 　(Idle, Flick, Updown) + Accel Sensor

    (MPU-6050)≒$3 Pico2(W)≒$10 + Pico2(W) Add Board≒$5 *Anyone can buy from Online marketplaces (Or Bread Board with Wire≒$10) | Pico2(W) | Sensor (MPU-6050) | | :--- | :--- | | 39 (VSYS) | 1 (VCC) | | 38 (GND) | 2 (GND) | | 7 (I2C0 SCL) | 3 (SCL) | | 6 (I2C0 SDA) | 4 (SDA) | ▪PCB_DATA(GitHub) https://github.com/iotengin eer22/pico2-ei-zephyr-de mo/tree/main/pcb

19. Audio Demo (XIAO nRF54L15 Sense) https://youtu.be/IbxTMiPwFTU

20. Audio Recognition Live Demo 　(Tokyo, Japan, Zephyr) XIAO nRF54L15 Sense　≒$15

    Integrated with ・Accel sensor ・Microphone *Anyone can buy from Online marketplaces

21. Summary

22. ・XIAO nRF54L15 Sense & Pico 2(W) match for debugging Edge

    AI on Zephyr. ・Lightweight Edge AI model fit Zephyr. (Including the AI model, fits into kBytes of RAM/ROM.) ・If you're interested, please debug it. (Zephyr already provides many support for Edge AI.) Summary I was able to debug Edge AI on Zephyr with useful boards！

23. In Closing Thank you for your attention.

24. Q&A Example:1 Question Answer Can we test this on other

    boards? Yes, likely. Edge Impulse supports many ICs (e.g., Arduino, NXP, Renesas, ST). https://docs.edgeimpulse.com/hardware Is Edge Impulse free to use? Yes. Individuals can use the service for free with some limitations, which is sufficient for this demo level. https://edgeimpulse.com/pricing How long did the training take? Very short time—about 1 minute for both audio and motion data. Which deployment mode did you use in Edge Impulse? We deployed using the C++ Library. (They recently added Zephyr support, which might be worth testing.) https://www.edgeimpulse.com/blog/announcing-the-edge-impulse-zephyr-module/ Can we run the Audio demo on Raspberry Pi Pico 2? Maybe. It should be possible by reading I2S/PDM data using PIO mode. (Scheduled for testing during the winter break.) Is a Video(Image) demo possible? Maybe. We believe it can be implemented even on low-spec SoCs using an SPI camera. (Scheduled for testing during the winter break.) Why is the model so lightweight? The model matrices are hard-coded into the .h,.cpp files. This trades off generality and flexibility for extremely light weight.

25. Q&A Example:2 Question Answer What was the most difficult point?

    Setting up the configuration files (CMakeLists and prj.conf) for Zephyr. Since there were many examples for Arduino + Edge Impulse, I adapted those. Also, managing naming conflicts, especially in the USB serial area, between the recent Edge Impulse SDK and Zephyr device names. Why did you choose Edge Impulse? I first used it for the Hardware contest. I found the platform interesting, so I have continued testing and debugging with it.